Using Chromatic for release-to-release comparisons
Release‑to‑release comparisons help you catch unintended UI changes between the last production version and your next release — something PR‑level reviews can miss due to baseline drift or squash merges.
Step 1: Use a consistent branch naming convention
Name your release branches predictably, for example:
release/v9.0.0, release/v10.0.0, release/v11.0.0.
This makes it easy to identify the previous production baseline and compare it against an upcoming release.
Step 2: Compare releases via a pull request
When you’re ready to release a new version:
- Create a pull request from the new release branch (e.g.,
release/v10.1.0) into the previous release branch (e.g.,release/v9.0.0). - Chromatic will generate a UI Review showing the entire changeset between the two releases — exactly what changed from the last production version to the next.
What you get
- Release‑to‑release diff – A complete visual comparison of the two production releases.
- Ongoing feature branch reviews – Your normal PR workflow against the current working version continues unchanged.